1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of automated mixing and display systems utilized in recording studios.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automated mixing techniques have been utilized in recording studios to produce multi-track tapes of high quality and with a variety of sophisticated mixing options to permit recordation of a wide variety of musical effects. A popular prior art automated mixing system is the Harrison-Allison Automation System. In such a system, a Harrison recording console containing, for example, provisions for as many as forty input mikes is utilized in conjunction with an Allison 65K computer automation programmer to provide for automated mixing. In such systems, fader levels may be adjusted during the mix and these levels are continually scanned and recorded on a data track of the multi-track tape. When the tape is played back, the same Harrison-Allison Automation System enables the fader to be controlled by the data previously recorded. The tape may be updated during the playback mode to change mixing levels and these updated values may then be recorded on the data track of the tape.
A distinct drawback to prior art systems, however, was the fact that although the automation programmer could typically control the VCA (voltage controlled amplifiers) of the individual faders, there was no way to display the digital value associated with these faders to permit the fader attenuators to be manually adjusted to correspond thereto. Consequently, it has heretofore been necessary to adjust the manual attenuator controls for each of the VCA faders utilizing a trial and error technique wherein the engineer listens to the particular mix and continually adjusts the fader attenuators until the desired mix is achieved. Such a process could typically take hours of work.
Another disadvantage of the prior art systems was the lack of any mechanism to store and subsequently retrieve additional data other than that provided by the recording console. Thus, extensive track sheets are typically employed to record setup parameters for the particular mix including, for example, the instrument/track assignments as well as the instrument/console module assignments. If such hard copy track assignments were lost, it is nearly impossible to recreate a particular mix.